6
Thursday, June 20, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS
Hippo Campus opened Bonna-
roo’s Saturday evening sets with
an energetic performance that
prevailed over the scorching heat.
The Minnesota band played hits
from both of their last two albums
— Landmark which dropped in
the winter of 2017 and Bambi that
followed a year later — the sixty-
minute set showing their range as
a collective, while giving a taste of
their development from one project
to the next. After the show, all five
members of the band (lead guitarist
Jake Luppen, lead guitarist Nathan
Stocker, bassist Zach Sutton, drum-
mer Whistler Allen, trumpeter
DeCarlo Jackson) sat down with
The Daily to talk about the evolu-
tion of their sound, their first musi-
cal influences and their band’s code
of conduct in the event of mass hys-
teria.
The Michigan Daily: How does
playing at a massive festival like
Bonnaroo compare to a smaller,
more intimate show?
Zach
Sutton:
I
think
you
answered your own question. It’s
definitely less intimate at a festival.
At a show, especially at a smaller
show with a smaller venue, smaller
attendance, you have the opportu-
nity to be more subtle, more inti-
mate, more … quiet, even, whereas
at festivals you kind of have to keep
the ball rolling, keep the energy up.
I can’t say I prefer one or the other,
they’re both different. They’re both
super fun.
Nathan Stocker: One’s a buffet
and one’s the main course.
TMD: ‘Bambi’ felt like a big
change from ‘Landmark,’ both
in terms of the electronic instru-
mentation and the confessional
themes. Would you say those
changes are connected?
ZS: Definitely.
NS: Yes. Jake (Luppen)? What do
you have to say about that?
Jake Luppen: …
ZS: Process, process …
JL: Mmm, I don’t know, what do
you guys think?
ZS: Well I personally feel like
there’s a correlation. We spent
a lot of time separate from each
other, writing Bambi with our
computers, outside of the room
jamming together. And that hap-
pened because of natural changes
— whether that’s with our producer
or just learning more about produc-
tion — and then that was reflected
in the lyrics and in the content
because we drifted more outside of
the ‘Basement,’ as we call it.
JL: I think the electronic ele-
ments helped us strip things down
because everything was so clean.
It allowed us to strip all the songs
down to a minimal amount of
instruments while still allowing
them to be as loud and aggressive as
we wanted them to be.
TMD: Do you see that as a
future direction for Hippo Cam-
pus?
JL: I don’t know, I feel like we’ll
probably make a record that sounds
totally different from Bambi next …
cause we’re in the business of mak-
ing records that sound different.
ZS: That’s right.
JL: Every time.
DeCarlo Jackson: (Mumbling a
melody) Burr-pa-burr ...
JL: Yeah, something like that.
TMD: Speaking of future proj-
ects, Jake, you recently posted
on twitter about a future demos
album. You just released ‘Demos
1’ a few days ago. What will that
(future album) be? Will that just
be ‘Demos 2’?
JL: Well, you know, what natu-
rally follows one is typically two.
(The band laughs)
NS: What normally follows one?
When I say I have to go to the bath-
room, and they ask which number, I
say number one.
JL: It’s not demos three.
NS: And when I say I have to go
to the bathroom a few hours later,
they don’t ask, they know. He’s
going number two.
TMD: What track would you
say you’re the most proud of?
ZS: In our discography?
TMD: Yeah.
ZS: I like “Warmglow” the best.
It’s different from the rest, and I
fuck with it.
NS: I can back that. I like differ-
ent songs for different reasons, you
can’t really pick one. But that’s sort
of the point, to reach closer and
closer to all of them completing a
puzzle, but it’s never really ending,
that search for the right pieces.
TMD: Okay, so, you all are
stranded on a deserted island.
Something’s
gone
terribly
wrong, it’s just the five of you.
Who is the first to resort to can-
nibalism and eat the others?
That or some other depraved
nonsense.
JL: Zach (Sutton).
ZS: You think I’m gonna —
NS: You’re gonna eat one of us
first. Yeah.
JL: Zach’s the most violent one.
DJ: Or at least suggest it (canni-
balism), like.
NS: Yeah, you’re like, “Guys, just
thinking, we’re all hungry.”
ZS: Guys, I would never do that.
NS: It’s not about you never doing
it, it’s about you being the first one —
ZS: Genuinely, I think it would be
you, Nathan. You’d be like, “We’ve
gotta look at the facts.”
NS: The first one to be eaten
would
definitely
be
Whistler
(Allen).
Whistler Allen, silent until now,
smiles.
Whistler Allen: That’s not the
question.
ZS: Unfortunately, I agree with
you (Nathan).
(The band laughs)
NS: Whistler would be eaten
first. We wouldn’t be able to find
DeCarlo (Jackson) ‘cause he’d be
playing trumpet somewhere.
ZS: ‘Cause he’d have his trumpet,
undoubtedly.
NS Jake would leave a bread-
crumb trail of shit he brought with
you.
DJ: Just a whole stack of hotel
cards.
NS: Zach would be working out
or something. And I’d be doing
what I’m doing right now, analyz-
ing all of it … Yeah you know, maybe
I would do it.
TMD: So what was the transi-
tion like, adding a fifth member
(Jackson)?
ZS: Seamless.
NS: Yeah, there wasn’t really
much of one.
JL: (to Jackson) How’d you feel?
DJ: How’d I feel? Man, I felt a
whole lot of things. It was really
hard.
JL: Really?
DJ: I mean, it’s a tough group to
play with, because you can’t over-
play, but if you underplay everyone
will assume you don’t exist. It was
a tough in-between to find. At the
same time, I tried to make the tran-
sition as easy as possible on every-
one else. In the sense that I tried to
only make things better — I tried
my best not to get in the way too
much.
TMD: How did you get started
with the group? How did you
integrate or meet?
DJ: Umm, we all went to high
school, so I’ve known these guys
since they sucked at writing music.
NS: For the record, we still suck
at writing music.
DJ: You didn’t let me finish my
sentence, either.
TMD: Do you guys have any
artists that you remember latch-
ing onto growing up? Kind of as
your first influence? Your first
favorite artist?
NS: Enya.
ZS: Was that? Because that was
big for me.
NS: Enya was big.
ZS: The first record I bought
was Black Parade by My Chemical
Romance.
DJ: Ah.
ZS: And I stand by that as being
a big influence on everything I do —
extending past music.
DJ: Fallout Boy Infinity On High.
Pfff, crazy.
JL: Led Zeppelin had this live
album called How the West Was
Won, and I used to listen to that all
the time.
TMD: Who are your guys’
favorite active artists?
ZS: The Brother Brothers. I
cannot get enough of The Brother
Brothers.
NS: The Brother Brothers are
really good.
TMD: I’m not familiar with
them, what are they like?
ZS: Folk.
NS: Twins.
ZS: They are brothers, come to
find out. They covered Buck Meek’s
song on their I think first and only
record —
NS: No, it’s their second record.
ZS: Second record? Some People I
Know, something like that … (sing-
ing) “Sam Bridges burned down
to El Paso / Chasing the sound of
speed.”
NS: Anyway, anyone else?
DJ: Oh and Nilüfer Yanya, Nilüfer
Yanya. Is that how you say it?
NS: (singing) “Mahhhliah, mahhl-
iah.” Great. Great record.
ZS: And Fontaines D.C.
JL: Recently Club Night put out
a really cool album, about a month
ago, I think.
Views from ‘Roo 2019: A
chat with Hippo Campus
MUSIC INTERVIEW
ROLLING STONE
STEPHEN SATARINO
Daily Film Editor
JONAH MENDELSON
Daily Arts Writer